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friction fires suck!

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recurve shooter:
 >:( tried for a few hours the other day with the bow drill meathod. pine hand block, both a pine and sweet gum board, privet, cedar, river cane, and oak spindals. we could get a nice little pile of dust, and lots of smoke, but no fire!!!! quite annoying sence the guys on youtube take like 5 seconds to get an ember.  ???

n2everythg:
Use SOFT wood.
Pine has too much resin.
Oak and hardwoods too hard.
forgot where you are but use something like

Cedar, Juniper, Yucca, poplar. If you are out west cottonwood works good.
Goldenrod, horsetail weed.

lots of choices out there But make sure it is soft wood.

Also forgot to mention.. the first time really, really sucks. I failed a bunch... but once you figure out how to do it it gets a lot easier..
one thing to try.. go slow and steady with out too much pressure until you build up a pile of dust and it starts smoking then go like crazy with more pressure to get the actual coal.

Luck and keep at it.
N2

recurve shooter:
thanks man! im in south louisiana, and im sure i can find something soft out there. eastern red cedar is fairly comon, i'll try to get some of that.  ;D

jamie:
recurve get an erc sapwood board and look for a yucca flower stem in somebodies landscape. i use this to teach first timers who are frustrated. its basically a primitive match it works so easy. after working with some of the stuff you tried you'll get a coal lickety split. one other thing dont try so hard, just be smooth with the bow and it will happen. i was teaching a class and had an eighty year old women with us. i was worried how i was gonna get her to do it. she was the second person to get a coal. later she told me she played violin her whole life.

aaron:
as jamie said- find yucca, one that has been dead since last year. keep trying- you'll get it! pics of your set ?

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